While some fans of Buc-ee's love the shopping experience;
it's the brisket that's gotten the most buzz. From heaping whole brisket portions to strategic
planning to get exactly what you want – there’s a method to the madness of Buc-Ee’s brisket.
As we all know, the bar for most gas station food is set pretty low. Most of us would be
happy grabbing a bag of chips and a soda or maybe a doughnut if it looks fresh enough. And
we all know to keep our expectations in check when ordering any hot food at most stations.
Buc-ee's, however, is a notable exception. According to Texas Monthly,
the chain's co-owner personally taste-tests proposed new recipes
and ingredients before authorizing them for sale and Buc-ee's brisket
is a case in point. As Buc-ee's Operations District Manager Michael Bui told CBS 42…
“We put a lot of love in it. These briskets are smoked for at least 12 to 14 hours."
Michael Bui also went on to say,
“We have a smokehouse that ships it to the stores daily. [We] put a little bit a salt, a little bit
of pepper, a couple other seasonings, of course, just low and slow, you know, the Texas way.”
As a Texas-based chain, Buc-ee's knows its customers have high standards for brisket
and plenty of other places to go for a good brisket sandwich — so maintaining quality is
a priority. And Buc-ee's is confident it can deliver. Buc-ee’s culinary director
Jim Mills is so confident about the product that he told Texas Monthly:
"I put it [the brisket] up against some of the
fancy-pants barbecue that's in this part of the country.”
While you can always find warm, pre-wrapped brisket sandwiches at Buc-ee's, dedicated
brisket fans know the thing to do is wait for a fresh batch to be brought out and
sliced. As noted by The Ledger, whenever a fresh brisket is brought out, the carver calls out,
in an almost musical chant, "Fresh hot brisket on the board!" And at this point,
those in the know approach the board to watch the carving in action and
prepare to scoop up freshly assembled sandwiches as soon as they're made.
Texas takes barbecue beyond seriously. According to Feastio, some fans are
willing to wait in line for up to four hours at some of the state's top barbecue places.
For this reason, Buc-ee's knows it's critical to ensure its brisket is made right. And for this,
it was essential that a proven barbecue expert take the lead.
While Buc-ee's culinary director Jim Mills is a veteran of the hotel and restaurant industry
according to Texas Monthly, he wisely delegated the chain's barbecue operations to prize-winning
pitmaster Randy Pauly, a former firefighter and contestant on the Food Network show "Chopped.”
Pauly, according to the Houston Chronicle, began visiting barbecue competitions with his father
as a child and was named the grand champion in his first competition while still in his teens.
The Buc-ee's practice of carving its briskets in-house doesn't just
ensure you get fresher sandwiches — it also offers you options you won't
find at a filling station offering only grab-and-go food that was made off site.
While it's a safe bet that most brisket-loving travelers passing through Buc-ee's just grab
a sandwich or two, along with some of the store's other famous treats,
there’s those who are willing to buy more.
“Fate brought us together, and from the first moment, it was electric.”
If you really, really love brisket or need to feed a crowd, you can also buy
Buc-ee's brisket by the pound, or even a whole brisket to take home and reheat,
Buc-ee's pitmaster Randy Pauly told Fox 35.
Be warned, though, that because this option is so little known, even some Buc-ee's employees
may be unaware of it. A commenter on Tripadvisor explained their reaction when they asked for it:
"When I went to order it, I got the deer in the headlight look.”
Others reported being told they could only buy it in full-pound increments, while still
others reported being able to buy as much or as little bulk brisket as they wanted without a
problem. So if you're at Buc-ee's and want enough brisket to last a few days, it won't hurt to ask.
There's no such thing as a truly universally loved food. Because taste is so subjective,
it's possible to put the same plate of food in front of three
different people and get three completely different reactions.
Somewhere in the world there are undoubtedly outliers who hate chocolate or bacon or ice
cream. And Buc-ee's brisket is another example of a well-loved food that some people just don't
get. One person took to Reddit to voice their complaints about Buc-Ee’s brisket, saying:
"The bbq they serve is a horrible representation of Texas. It used
to be absolutely 'good,' but now it's just bad.”
That wasn't even the harshest of the critiques, another Redditor wrote:
"Bucees bbq is only good for a 5 hour drive where you are starving
and you want to be disappointed after every bite.”
When you think about it, the rules about which foods are appropriate for which
meals are pretty arbitrary –- why are bacon and waffles traditionally breakfast foods,
while brisket and meatballs are not? Even Buc-ee's, which offers hot food around the clock,
limits some preparations to certain times of day — made-to-order lunch
items are only available between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., for instance.
Buc-ee's offers several breakfast items,
too. But if you love the idea of brisket for breakfast, don't worry.
You can treat yourself to a freshly made brisket breakfast taco if you show up between
4 a.m. and 11 a.m. According to Barbecue Bros, you can choose an all-brisket taco
or a brisket and egg taco if you want an extra hit of creaminess and protein.
If you arrive at Buc-ee's craving brisket, you won't have long to wait and while you can
wait for a fresh brisket to be brought out, carved, and made into sandwiches,
if you're pressed for time, there are almost always hot, foil-wrapped sandwiches ready to go.
So what can you expect when you open one of the sandwiches? All sandwiches are served on buns,
but you can choose between sliced and chopped brisket. The chopped version,
according to The Post and Courier's review, comes mixed with a generous
portion of barbecue sauce and is reminiscent of a Sloppy Joe.
The sliced version comes with a smaller amount of sauce, which is simply spread on the bun.
You can also get these sandwiches in different sizes. Per This Polk Life,
Buc-ee's now has an XXL brisket sandwich that offers an extra-generous portion of meat.
If you walked into Buc-ee's knowing nothing about it, the sight of a carving station in
the store could be a bit jarring. Who'd expect to see whole briskets and chickens
being brought out and sliced in the middle of a place that sells wiper fluid? We get it,
it all seems a bit surreal. What makes it even more shocking is that according to CBS 42,
Buc-ee's works with a smokehouse that prepares the briskets and ships them daily to its stores.
So, that begs the question… Given the briskets aren't even cooked in house, why not just have
the sandwiches prepped offsite as most gas stations do? Hiring an extra team of people to
prep everything onsite seems a bit inefficient and doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
Still, the carving station has become one of the signature attractions at Buc-ee's,
perhaps because it's so unusual for the setting. And Buc-ee's regulars relish the
theater of it all, from the regular chants of "Fresh hot brisket on the board!" to the sight
and sound of hot briskets being sliced and chopped, per The Ledger. And for Buc-ee's,
the theater is the point. As Buc-ee's general counsel Jeff Nadalo told The Post and Courier,
"We've been working to create an interactive, fun experience for our
guests that highlights the fresh quality brisket and other barbecue that we sell.”
"Fresh chopped brisket on the board!"
If you're a hearty eater, or an indecisive one,
you know how hard it is to feel satisfied ordering just one thing -– if you do,
you'll finish your meal either still hungry or with a nagging sense of FOMO.
At Buc-ee's, the dilemma for the hungry and indecisive is multitudes greater than usual
because of the huge assortment of options, which includes everything from spiced nuts to pudding
cups to dried fruit to eggrolls to kolache and sandwiches. Just figuring out what your options
are in the cavernous store will require several minutes of walking and a sharp short-term memory.
If you narrow your choice down to brisket, however,
the choices get easier. During the early morning hours, you'll have a
choice from among a couple of varieties of brisket breakfast tacos, per Barbecue Bros.
During the lunch hours, you can choose between chopped or sliced brisket sandwiches,
per The Post and Courier. The Barbecue Bros, however, have discovered a sweet spot when
you can get the best of both worlds: Get there at the tail end of breakfast service when the
carving team is transitioning between the breakfast and lunch menus — around 10:45
a.m. — and you may be able to score both a brisket breakfast taco and a brisket sandwich.
Unsuspecting first-time visitors to Buc-ee's may be surprised to see so
much actual cooking going on inside its outlets, and watching carvers pull out
and skillfully slice and chop whole briskets can be a novel treat for a Buc-ee's newcomer.
After all, while most of us know gas stations as reliable places to grab a bottle of soda,
an ice cream bar, or maybe some packaged cookies or chips,
the last thing we'd think to get at most of them is a high-quality hot meal.
But according to Wide Open Eats, the idea of freshly prepared gas station meals isn't new,
nor is it unique to Buc-ee's. Intentionally or not, the extensive food program at Buc-ee's
echoes a much older Southern tradition of gas station cookery. Per The Bitter Southerner,
gas stations in small towns in the Mississippi Delta have often served as
the only commercial entities — and thus as de facto social centers — for their communities.
Many of these stations have discovered their food — typically regional specialties such as
fried chicken and hot tamales — to be more profitable than their gas sales. Given that
Buc-ee's is known for its low gas prices as well as its food (per Texas Monthly),
it's likely the chain's famous brisket plays a similar role in its business.